vogt - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Have students prepare to read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by reading and discussing the dialect chart.

Black-American readers, among others, may rightfully resent the term used by Mark Twain that has become a painful racial epithet. However, it was an everyday term for black people in the South during the period of Huck’s adventures. The students should be apprised of this before beginning the novel.

Have the students discuss Huck and Jim’s evolving relationship, paying particular attention to the following moments:

1. When Huck and Jim return to Jackson Island.
2. When Huck apologizes to Jim for having tricked him

Have the students analyze the significance of Huck allowing Tom to “have his adventures” in the final part of the novel.

Have students discuss the following topic:

Huck: instinctively moral in a immoral society
Social alienation
the cruelty of the human race
Huck’s relationship with Tom Sawyer
Jim’s relationship with Tom Sawyer
Jim’s degeneration into a stereotype and other characters that are stereotypes
Tom and Huck as archetypes

Have students write an analysis of one of the humorous stories or incidents in the novel.

Have the students discuss or write about the contrast between “river” values and “shore” values
What is the difference between these two sets of values? what set is better? Why?

Have the students summarize what the novel illustrates about the following subject in their notebooks, journals, or reading logs.

freedom	violence	morality
religion	superstitions	conscience
friendship	honesty and truth	conscience

Have the students participate in parallel reading groups. Explain to them that these two novels also have young protagonists: To Kill a Mockingbird and True Grit.